I. The second Saxon church of 972 seems to have lasted till 1116, when it was destroyed by fire, and the present church, the third, was commenced. The foundations of part of this Saxon cathedral have been recently disinterred beneath the present south transept. It was cruciform, with a square east end. The east limb was 23 feet each way; the transept was 88 feet long. Its walls were under three feet thick, so that it cannot have been intended for a vault. There is no proof that the nave was ever built. II. In 1116 the Saxon cathedral was seriously injured by a great fire, and next year Abbot John of Sais (Seez) commenced the present Norman cathedral. In 1140 the monks entered on the new choir, which was now complete, together with the eastern aisles and eastern wall of the transepts. It is possible that the monks patched up the damaged Saxon church sufficiently to allow service to be held in it from 1116 to 1140. When they entered into their new Norman choir, the first thing they did, probably, was to pull down the choir and transept of the Saxon church, and on the site to erect the rest of the present south transept. [Illustration: CHOIR AND TRANSEPT.] Then they built the rest of the north transept. It will be noticed that it is superior in design to the south transept, its windows are splayed, and their ornamentation of later character. This north transept is illustrated by M. Viollet-le-Duc as a specially fine example of English Romanesque. Next would be built the remaining piers and arches of the crossing, and a low lantern tower of one story only. But the western piers would not stand without abutment, and so a certain amount of the eastern bays of the nave must have been built at the same time. This comprised two bays of the triforium, for the tympana of the two eastern bays of the triforium have rude ornaments not found elsewhere in the nave. Below, it probably comprised four piers and four arches, for the four eastern piers on the north side have different bases from those to the west. [Illustration: NAVE.] Hitherto the north wall of the Saxon nave, if built, may have been retained to shut in the cloister on the north. Now it would be pulled down and replaced by the wall of the present south aisle of the nave. Then would come the wall of the north aisle, and finally the pier-arcade and triforium, but not yet the clerestory of the nave. The nave was to be in plan precisely like that of Durham: it was to be a short nave; the central aisle to have eight bays; the side aisles were to have only seven bays, the end of each aisle being occupied by a tower, as at Durham. The ground stories of these towers now form the third bays from the west on either side of the nave. It will be noticed that the third piers from the west are exceptionally massive and strong, and that in this bay the aisle-walls are thickened. The wide arches of these bays were intended to open up the towers into the nave.